Numerical analysis and optimization of the effects of incremental strain rate in the wire drawing process

Abstract This work deals with a numerical analysis of the effect of incremental strain rate (cumulative strain) in the drawing process of AA-6005 aluminum alloy wire. A finite element method and optimization procedure using a simplex algorithm were used to optimize the dies geometry of all ranges. For this, a 95% total strain rate was realized in three configurations ranges of wire drawing process. This ranges are extracted by the optimization procedure, a decreasing strain rate for an initial value of 35%, a constant strain rate of 24.67% and an increasing strain rate for an initial value of 12%, were imposed respectively. The analysis results (principal stresses, damages distribution, residual hydrostatic pressure, plastic power,...) are used to predict the drawing force, axial surface stress and die stress to be adjusted to ensure improved quality of the drawing process. The cuppy wire and stress concentrations causing central burst (chevron) formation and fractures were predicted during the simulation. For this, different die diameters were used in the analysis. This analysis was performed on the Forge®NxT3 finite element code and validated with the wire drawing test results of the literature.